More and more brands seem to be convinced that the best skincare products are made-to-measure to suit the needs of your skin. From boosters that you add to your day cream to products based on your DNA, personalized skincare is getting more and more mainstream.

Every skin is unique. Some products might help your friend’s oily skin but might do nothing for your oily skin. Even your skin doesn’t always act the same: it might get drier in winter or more sensitive under stress or you might notice a pimple just before your period. And oily skin can be sensitive, too, or dehydrated. Which is why the classic divide in oily, mixed, normal and dry skin is outdated. There are more skin types than those four and your skin can change. Hence the arrival of personalised skincare.

That does not have to be complicated. Your own perceptions can easily lead to personalised products like Kiehl’s Apothecary Preparations (95 €). You fill in a skin questionnaire with a sales person at the Kiehl’s store and talk about your skin’s needs and problems. Those questions lead to two concentrates that you simply add to a neutral base and mix, thus creating a personalised product.

Or you add a trendy skin booster to your daily routine. “Every woman knows her skin best and knows what it needs,” says Marie-Hélène Lair, director of the scientific communication at Clarins that was one of the first cosmetics brands to launch those tiny booster bottles you use as a cure anytime your skin needs it. (The brand has three boosters: Energy, Repair and Detox.) You simply add a couple of drops to your day cream or serum, depending on your skin’s needs, whether it has lost its natural glow, needs some extra hydration, is too shiny or shows you are under a lot of stress. You simply mix & match.

Dior latest skincare launch Capture Youth lets you choose between five booster serums that you add to its day cream or apply under it. Paula’s Choice does anti-ageing boosters, too, as founder Paula Begoun thinks “your skin can sometimes use a little something extra”.

But personalised skincare can get deeper than that. Literally. French brand Ioma and the Belgian skincare brand Carpe take pictures of your skin with a high-tech machine that shows visible and not visible yet damage on your skin. That analysis leads to a skincare regime filled with products adapted to your skin.

Or you let your skincare products be based on your DNA, which is probably the most advanced branch of personalised skincare. Newcomer Nomige was launched by Barbara Geusens, doctor in dermatology.

You do a DNA swab at home that is then analysed in the lab. You also fill in an online lifestyle test. A couple of weeks later your personalised skincare set is delivered at your place. “We investigate mutations in different genes and how they influence the collagen production, the antioxidant level and the hydration level of your skin. Those genetic defects are then adjusted with the right serums and creams. That profile will always stay the same as your DNA does not change. But your lifestyle can change: you can start to lead a more healthy or unhealthy life, you can get a stressful job, you become pregnant… No matter how good your genes are, if you smoke every single day, it shows up on your skin. Which is why we have also developed a lifestyle cream that you can change when your lifestyle changes.”

Geusens believes genes play an important role in how skin ages. “According to scientific research your DNA plays – on average – a 60% role in skin ageing. 40% is being determined by your lifestyle. The older you get, the more important those extern factors become. Your DNA tells a lot about your skin that nobody else can.”

Nomige is not the only player on the DNA skincare market in Europe. There’s Genoxage, a collab between Belgian Pascaud Beauty Innovations and Spanish Genocosmetics Lab, British Geneu and Spanish One Gen/0,1.

(DNA skincare doesn’t come cheap by the way: you pay 669€ for your starters set at Genoxage and 499€ at Nomige for your personalised analysis, a day serum, lifestyle cream, night serum and a night cream.)

Although personalised skincare is an exciting new skincare subbranch, it is not necessarily the ultimate way to take care of your skin. You can still get allergic reactions – your DNA or a high-tech machine cannot give any information on allergies – and according to Geusens the ultimate skincare product might be a mix of different domains. “If you want to take everything into account, you have to create a product that takes into account your microbiome, your DNA and epigenetic factors. That might be the ultimate future of skincare.”